1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hand-held knife sharpeners of a type having abrasive blade sharpening means, and more particularly to an improved hand-held knife sharpener having rotatably positionable blade sharpening means for selective accommodation of both right-handed and left-handed users.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, hand-held knife sharpeners have typically included a handle to be grasped by a user and abrasive blade sharpening means fixed at an end of the handle and defining a blade draw channel or channels, whereby a knife blade may be sharpened by drawing the blade from heel to point through the channel or channels to frictionally engage the abrasive blade sharpening means. It is known to provide knife sharpeners of this type with blade sharpening means having abrasive honing elements successively arranged "downstream" of blade straightening elements, such that a single predetermined blade draw direction is associated with the knife sharpener. One known form of blade sharpening means comprises a pair of overlapping straightening wheels followed by an adjacent pair of overlapping honing wheels axially aligned with each of the straightening wheels, thereby defining a blade draw channel wherein a blade edge is contacted on opposite sides thereof by each pair of wheels. Because a large majority of knife sharpener users are right-handed, prior art knife sharpeners with a predetermined blade draw direction have been designed and manufactured such that the blade draw direction is generally from left to right, thereby enabling a user to grasp the knife sharpener handle with the left hand and use the right hand to hold a knife to be sharpened and draw it through the blade draw channel.
Such prior art knife sharpeners are ergonomically unsuited for left-handed users, who are forced into right-handed manipulation of the knife, thus compromising safety of use. To this point, knife sharpener manufacturers have lacked economic justification for offering an oppositely designed knife sharpener solely for left-handed users, given the relatively small demand for same in comparison to the demand for knife sharpeners designed solely for right-handed users.